A Tender Touch: A Donnelley Brother's Novel (Logan Point Book 4) (17 page)

“I don’t know.” I looked down to my feet. “I just need to work through this.”

“You won’t leave?” He asked on a shaking breath.

I looked back up at him. “I’m in the wedding. I can’t leave.”

“Can I come over tonight?”

I shook my head. “You can text me.”

“We haven’t spent a night apart since your mom came to visit.” He informed me - as though I hadn’t already thought of how hard it was going to be.

“I know.”

“Ember, please.” The desperation in his voice stabbed at my heart - but I couldn’t force myself to look back at him as I ran from his bedroom, through his house and out the door.

I walked all the way to my cabin with tears of heartache I had never known streaming down my face.

Chapter 16

I thought I’d lived through the hardest week of my life - but I was wrong.

When my father left my mother and I in the dead of the night never to return - I’d always thought the week that followed would be the hardest week of my life. I’d watched my mother fall into a dark place that morphed her kind blue eyes into blank canvases of sorrow and self-loathing. I listened to the sound of her crying claim the melody of her laughter and I watched the dedication in her work fall away to the poison of carelessness. In that week, I lost my mother over and over again. In that week, I learned to be an adult. In that week, I promised myself that I would never allow a man to hold such a power over me.

I’d thought that week was the hardest I would ever have to live. But I was wrong.

The week following my confession of love, my first kiss, and my heated make-out session with Luke was the worst. The week following the day I recognized my feelings for Luke as love, was the worst week, because I pushed away the only man I had ever loved, and my very best friend. Luke knew me in ways Kami had never known me. I’d let Luke see me in ways I’d never allowed any other to see me - vulnerable.

Throughout the week leading up to the big wedding, I had been a ruin. I still went to work every day - and toured with Luke - but it was tense. He teased me, and joked with me, and kept things light the way I knew he believed I needed, but behind his playful persona I could see the pain and worry within the man I had come to love. And I hated that I’d put that pain and worry in his eyes. He truly didn’t deserve someone like me. He deserved so much more. Luke Donnelley was an amazing man and he deserved a woman who could give him the world and more. I knew that I would only ever hold him back. I mean, I was already holding him back.

For the last week, I had slept alone.

I never thought, for even one moment, that I could grow so quickly dependent upon another person - but in the time I’d been sleeping beside Luke, I’d come to need him. The week without him next to me had been freaking horrible. I woke multiple times throughout the night - my body searching for a warmth that wasn’t there.

I knew he missed me too - because every morning he texted me and told me so. Luke and I had never really had much in the name of a texting relationship, but I supposed we’d never had to before. I’d always just had Luke with me, so there’d never been much of a need to deepen our texting relationship. Now that I wasn’t with him, however, Luke had taken the term texting to a whole knew meaning.

He texted me every day - multiple times a day. Sometimes, he texted me so many times in a day, I worried that my unlimited texting plan might even be considered null and void. Yes, I knew I was exaggerating - but he texted me a lot.

Even now, as Kami tugged on the zipper of my bridesmaid dress, I heard the buzz of my vibrating phone against the dresser. Her eyes connected with my blue ones in the mirror. “Is that Luke again?”

“What do you think?” I sighed.

“I think he loves you.” She said bluntly and I flinched.

Holding myself together with admirable calm, I replied. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

She shrugged. “Someone had to say it. The poor man’s been running around trying to fix whatever happened between the two of you for a week. Put him out of his misery, Ember, or another girl will.”

I stiffened as though I’d been backhanded - by my best friend. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“This is a wedding.”

“I know that.”

Kami rolled her eyes. “There are a lot of single people looking for hot sweaty wedding sex, Em. If you’re not going to pay any attention to the man, I can guarantee that some other girl will. Luke’s hot - and I know he’s really into you, but what you’re doing to him isn’t what he deserves.”

“Whose side are you on?” I demanded, feeling my cheeks redden deeply. “You’re supposed to be my best friend.”

“I am your best friend. That’s why I can say this to you, and you’ll listen to me.” She pinned me with determined eyes. “You’re being a coward. I know you love him, Em, and I know the man loves you. I also know that you’re feeling a lot of crap right now - but that’s all it is - crap.”

“Kami,”

“I know you, Em. So I know you’re telling yourself your not good enough for him. I know you’re telling yourself that he deserves better than you and that he needs someone who can give him more - but shit, can’t you see that you’re it for him?”

I shook my head. “Please stop talking.”

“No.” Kami hissed. “I’m not going to stop, because you said the same thing to me when I worried over whether I was good enough for Kyle. And I am good enough. I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to him because he is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I know if you pull your head out of your ass long enough, you’ll see it’s the same for you and Luke.”

Tears balanced on my lower lashes, and I flicked at them, trying to keep from smudging my mascara in the process. “I just - I’m so afraid.”

“You’re going to keep being afraid until you leap.” She smiled softly. “But once you’re in the air, falling, you’ll finally find that you can fly.”

The bedroom door flung open just in time and Hadley waltzed in with Reese, Gracie, and her mother fast on her heel. I felt my mouth drop. “Oh my!” I gasped, touching my fingertips to my lip. “You’re beautiful.”

She spun. “I’m so happy right now.” She blew out an unsteady breath. “Is it time yet?”

Gracie chuckled. “It’s time.”

“Oh God.” Hadley gave a little jump in her strapless princess gown. “I’m getting married.”

“Cold feet?” I teased.

Hadley’s eyes connected with mine and she stepped forward. Reaching out, she pulled my hands into hers. “Ember, there’s something I want you to know.”

Sensing the seriousness in her tone, I nodded. “I’m listening.”

“When you’re marrying a Donnelley Brother, there is never a moment that you have cold feet.” She smiled gently before winking. “Believe me when I tell you they know how to keep their women’s feet warm.”

Blushing, I tried to restrain my nervous laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You do that.” She nodded. “Now, let’s go get me married!”

Before I followed Hadley out the door, I grabbed my phone from the dresser. Sliding my finger across the screen to view Luke’s text message, I felt my heart race.

You always look beautiful, so I know you’re beautiful now. I look forward to dancing with my date.

I’m his date! I’m still Luke Donnelley’s date to this wedding - but I still can’t stop the ringing of Kami’s words in my ear. I know that if I don’t get my crap together, I will lose this - whatever this is with Luke. I don’t want to lose this.

So I typed back a quick text before shoving my phone into the mocha clutch. I hoped he understood the reference of my reply to the night I’d spent dancing, intoxicated in his arms.

Only if I can dance on your feet.

***

The music was playing and I knew it was my turn to walk down the aisle. I hadn’t seen Luke all day long, and I would be lying if I were to admit that I wasn’t nervous as all hell. Because I was extremely nervous - and I wasn’t the one getting married.

As I stepped around the small covering of trees out into the open, I looked up and found Luke watching me. He was standing next to Collin, as the best man, and I was the first bridesmaid to appear. Clutching my bouquet of pink peonies and white roses, I breathed in for courage, and I walked. Through my entire walk down the aisle, I felt Luke’s hot chocolate eyes on me, but I focused on walking my own feet down the grassy walkway - all the way to the altar.

The men were in stunning mocha suits with soft pink ties. I’d never seen any of the Donnelley Brother’s in anything so soft - and still they pulled it off remarkably well. As I took my place at the altar and turned to find Kami and then Reese walking behind me, Kami moving to stand in front of me with Reese in front of her, closest to the altar, I let my eyes wander over Collin. He looked so resolute - in a wonderful way. It was like there was nowhere else on the earth that he would rather be, than where he was, waiting for Hadley to walk down the aisle toward him.

As the music changed and Hadley appeared on her father’s arm, I couldn’t help but sneak a glance at Luke. I hadn’t been expecting to find him watching me - but he was.

Feeling my cheeks burn brilliantly, I trained my eyes on Hadley’s smiling face and prayed the heat climbing through my body would soon offer me relief.

Chapter 17

Following the wedding ceremony were the pictures, and following the pictures were cocktails, and then dinner and speeches, and then the cake cutting. All through the evening, as the hours passed, I felt Luke there watching me - but I hadn’t found the time, not even a spare second, to tell him I was sorry for my behavior this past week. Kami was right, I didn’t want another woman to sink her claws in him. Luke was a catch, and although I didn’t deserve him, somehow I had caught him. Somehow, Luke Donnelley had fallen in love with me. Although he had yet to say the world changing words, I knew he felt them.

Turning my attention to where Collin was leading Hadley onto the dance floor for their first dance, I felt my heart swell with happiness for the newlyweds. They truly were a beautiful couple and I just knew that their children would be perfect little blond minions. Yes, they would be minions - undoubtedly because they would be too cute to ever be accused of wrong-doings.

I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face as the song came to an end and Collin dipped Hadley low, kissing her fiercely. The crowd clapped and cheered at their display of passion I prayed never failed to ignite them in its bliss. Collin and Hadley were the real deal. As a matter of fact, I truly believed that as soon as a woman married a Donnelley man - that was it for her. I mean, how could you marry a Donnelley man and ever think, for even a moment, that there was another out there who could possibly be any better? The Donnelley men were
freaking
perfect.

“Dance with me?” A low voice rumbled in my ear and I flinched, twisting in my chair to find Luke leaning down next to my shoulder.

I couldn’t detain the smile curling my lips as I took in his handsome face. Kicking off my heels, I spoke. “Yes.”

He grinned, his hand already holding mine as he tugged me from my chair. Standing to face him, I felt my smile widen as his warm scent washed over me. He was so close to me, if I only tilted my face and grew a few inches, I could press my lips to his. “God, I love your smile, pretty girl.”

“Thank you.” I looked down to my feet that were covered by the long hem of my bridesmaid dress.

He lifted my chin. “And I love your eyes too.”

I blinked. “Anything else?”

He nodded. “You.”

“What?” I breathed, feeling my heart thunder in my chest.

His eyes connected with mine and in their depths, I saw a pure kind of honesty that could be rivaled by nothing. “I love you, Ember.”

My breath caught in my throat, but in spite of my silence, my crystal ball eyes said it all.

Smiling gently, Luke placed a steady hand on the small of my back to guide me to the dance floor. Once there, he pulled me into his chest and whispered. “Climb on, pretty girl.”

I beamed - it was impossible not to when he spoke such sweet words. A small giggle of delight tickled my throat as I did just what he asked, and climbed on. Stepping one foot onto each of his, he pulled my body snuggly against his and held me tight. Then, even though the music was quick and the base was pumping a demand for fast movements, he took me around the dance floor slowly.

All around us, the floor was filled with people who spun and laughed and danced - but even though they were so close, they were so far away.

As he held me close and spun me around in slow romantic motions, I couldn’t help but lose myself to the romance of the world Luke had created for me. Looking up into his eyes, I saw a happiness in their cocoa depths that warmed the entirety of my heart. Hooking my arms around his neck, I held onto him so tight, I knew that no matter what the world tossed at us - in this moment, what I had with Luke couldn’t be shaken.

Dipping his head down to the crook of my shoulder and arm, he breathed. “I’ve missed you so much this past week.”

I swallowed past my hesitation. “I missed you too.”

“My bed isn’t the same without you in it.”

My heartbeat quickened. “Luke,”

“Don’t say you need anything but me, Ember.” He pulled back to look into my eyes. “You don’t need space and you don’t need time. I know you have feelings for me and I know you’re afraid of them, but I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. I promised you once that I’d be there to fight your fears. Please, let me keep my promise to you. Let me fight them, Ember.”

“I - Luke, I’m trying.”

He bowed his forehead to mine, breathing in relief - breathing in me. “That’s all I’m asking for, sweet girl.”

I closed my eyes, simply breathing him in. “I love you.”

I felt his body stiffen in my arms, and then I felt his arms circle around my waist to crush me against him. The breath rushed from my lungs in one big swoop, but although breathless, I was smiling harder than ever before - because it was out - the words were between us and I wasn’t afraid. Instead, I felt peace.

His voice was a husky growl in my ear. “I can’t wait to take you home with me tonight.”